After a quick trip to Bermuda land, the PGA TOUR heads back out West for the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The host course is TPC Summerlin which doesn’t offer much in terms of testing the world’s best. Not that protecting par is the goal but there is nothing, outside of weather, to stop these pros to racking the birdies in bunches.
The course is played at slight altitude and is not long to begin with. That puts a lot of short irons and wedges into their hands which are always scoring clubs at the PGA TOUR level. Let’s see what golfers might like a low-scoring affair.
Scoring in a Shootout
Five of the last six champions have reached or eclipsed the 20-under mark at TPC Summerlin.
Weather played a role in the other edition (seeing Patrick Cantlay win on 9-under).
With pristine weather in the forecast this week it is safe to expect another birdie fest in the desert.
Here are the top performers in adjusted strokes gained per round when playing easy courses, over the last two years:
Patrick Cantlay
Sungjae Im
Tom Kim
Alex Noren
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Seamus Power
Dean Burmester
Ryan Palmer
Aaron Wise
Tom Hoge
Cam Davis
Taylor Moore
Max Homa
Harris English
Matt Kuchar
We can also look at performance versus baseline to see who shows the largest increase in performance compared to their typical scores:
Kevin Yu
Benjamin Griffin
Patrick Cantlay
Garrick Higgo
Dean Burmester
Austin Eckroat
Taylor Moore
Rory Sabbatini
Callum Tarren
Ryan Palmer
Brandon Wu
Taylor Montgomery
Augusto Nunez
Harry Hall
K.H. Lee
Overlap List: names that show up on both lists include Patrick Cantlay, Dean Burmester, Taylor Moore, and Ryan Palmer.
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Kevin Yu comfortable in the Southwest
The youngster ascended to World No.1 amateur during his playing days at Arizona State. He still calls Tempe home so there is certainly some potential comfort in the desert conditions like he’ll see this week at TPC Summerlin. He posted a top 30 at this event last year and received a sponsor’s invite for another crack at the course this week. Yu was T3 after day one last week in Jackson so he’s arriving with some confidence in his corner.
Plug and play Mister Cantlay
The California kid is 6/1 in the early betting market, easily the favorite to start the week. I think that accurately depicts his chances as he’s the class of this field and also has strong course history in his corner. Cantlay won at TPC Summerlin in his debut and has returned to pick up two runner-up finishes and a T8 in three appearances since then.
